Fly in from Spokane via charter, survive a 73-60 test Thursday at LMU, spend the night in a hotel, hop back into the charter, fly to San Diego, play again, fly home.

UCLA basketball fans, desperate to land a marquee coach, can only groan that Few, one of the few (sorry about that) genuine marquee college coaches, is not about to stick around a lot longer.

The Gonzaga coach provides a sample size of the steep uphill road ahead for the Bruins. The best of the best are not demanding to be interviewed.

Yes, UCLA is the most storied program in college basketball with a record 11 NCAA championships.

But Bruin fans conveniently forget John Wooden won his 10 titles so long ago he might as well have been a contemporary of George Washington. It took 20 years before Jim Harrick, the old Morningside High coach, won No. 11, and that was 24 years ago.

Few has a clear view of UCLA basketball, both with his own eyes – he has been on the college level since 1989 when he signed on at Gonzaga as a graduate assistant – and via Donny Daniels, one of his assistants.

Daniels, the former player and coach at Harbor College and Cal State Fullerton, understands the culture at and surrounding the Bruins. An assistant in Westwood from 2003 to 2010, he knows why coaches since Wooden become the walking dead.

The quest for a deeper look at Few, and by proxy other high-profile coaches coveted by boosters, prompted a call to former El Segundo High baseball-basketball star Bobby Brett, now lead owner of the Spokane Indians Class A Short Season minor league baseball team and Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.

He has as good a read on Few as anyone.

There was no reason to beat around the bush. Is there any chance UCLA could pay Few enough money to lure him out of Spokane?

“No,” Brett said. “They could not get him for $100 million.”

Few is not someone who wants to take lunch at the latest must-be-seen-at restaurant. Rather, he prefers the solitude of fly fishing.

As shocking as it may be to some residents, L.A. is not for everyone, as post-Wooden coaches from Gene Bartow to Ben Howland and Steve Alford discovered the hard way.

Then there is UCLA’s senior administration, historically reluctant to embrace coaches, as Jim Harrick, Steve Lavin, Howland and Alford discovered, also the hard way. Boosters are worse, as every post-Wooden coach can testify.

Few makes a very nice income, thank you. While his listed salary is a rather modest $1,934,104 – modest compared to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski’s $8,982,325 and even UCLA football coach Chip Kelly’s $3,300,000 – within the basketball community, it is said there are side deals probably boosting his annual income to double or even more, plus a hefty annuity if he remains at Gonzaga.

“Oregon, where he went to school, offered him a blank check,” Brett said. “He said no. Arizona was interested in him at one time. He wasn’t interested in Arizona.”

Quality of life becomes more important as you become older.

“Mark is a quiet guy, Brett said. “In Spokane, he doesn’t have to do anything he’s not comfortable doing. That would not be the case at UCLA.”

This is a reference to a relentless army of boosters who expect access because, well, they’re accustomed to having access, and media demands that sap your energy unless you are wired like Pete Carroll or Sean McVay.

“Everything is state of the art with Gonzaga basketball,” Brett said. “They charter to every game. They’ve been doing it for 10 years. Schools like UCLA sometimes fly commercial.

“It seems like every high school in the Northwest comes to his summer camp. That money goes to his assistant coaches. That’s not going to happen at that level at UCLA.

“Where do your assistant coaches live in L.A.? They’re used to being able to afford nice homes in a beautiful city close to campus. In L.A., they’re screwed because they’re going to have to live way out in the Valley and spend a lot more money. Plus, there is no state income tax in Washington.”

He’s not just talking about Spokane, Gonzaga and Few. The situation is similar at a high percentage of major college basketball schools.

Expectations are not realistic at UCLA, which is why the Bruins figure to have to settle for a young coach with promise but not the desired background or a mid-level veteran with delusions of grandeur.

“If you are not 28-2 or 28-3 at UCLA, they hate you,” Brett said. “Who needs that when they love you where you are coaching now?”

Clearing out the mini-notebook

Just a thought: Any chance talk about how valuable Lonzo Ball is on defense is a misdirection play to enhance his trade value? Not to accuse the Lakers of playing games, but you can be sure the ghost of Al Davis, who was master of such misdirection moves when he ran the Raiders, is smiling. …

Etc.: Fresno County supervisor candidate Steve Hosey is the half-brother of Paul Pierce, the former Celtics star from Inglewood High. …

Bottom line: There was talk in Salt Lake City that Steve Sarkisian, the former USC coach from West Torrance High and El Camino College, was headed to Utah to become offensive coordinator before Alabama swooped in to hired him.